Western Michigan University students win national sustainability prize

Several Western Michigan University students won the national Wege sustainability prize. In the front row, pictured are: Elijah Lowry, Max Hornick, Kelsey Pitschel, Carlos Daniels. Int he back row, pictured are: Kyle Simpson, Ramon Roberts-Perazza and Josh Shultz.Courtesy photo

KALAMAZOO, MI -- Five Western Michigan University students have been recognized for using design principles to tackle sustainability problems.

The student team won first place and a $15,000 award for the 2015 Wege Prize from the Grand Rapids-based Wege Foundation.

The 2nd annual design contest "asked teams of five towork collaboratively across institutional and disciplinary boundaries to create a circular economy -- a tightly looped, restorative economic cycle where resources can be re-adapted for use without limiting the desirability of products or the loss of revenue," a WMU press release stated.

WMU's team, called "Western Sustainers," included:

* Max Hornick, public relations major from Kalamazoo;

* Ramon Roberts-Perazza, a civil engineering major from Detroit;

* Kelsey Pitschel, a mechanical engineering major from Hartland;

* Elijah Lowry, a geography and environmental and sustainability studies major from Dearborn;

* Cara Givens, a biomedical science major from Detroit.

The team won for designing The Local Loop Farm, an agricultural system that uses "complementary systems to increase economic, environmental and biological effectiveness" to exist symbiotically with the surrounding community, according to the press release.

The team included hydroponic grow beds, fish cultivation and hot water composting in its design.

They were advised by Josh Shultz, WMU's Office of Sustainability permaculture coordinator and WMU grads Kyle Simpson from Novi and Carlos Daniels from Detroit.

The team beat 12 teams from 11 other colleges, including University of California Berkeley, Grand Valley State University, Michigan State University and University of Michigan.